This application relates to devices, techniques and systems for detecting concentrations of injected radionuclides using a handheld nuclear update probe.
In medicine, handheld nuclear-uptake probes, with their audible feedback and count-rate readouts, are used to locate structures and regions where injected radionuclides are present, such as in radio-guided parathyroid and sentinel lymph node surgery with injected Tc-99 sestamibi and Tc-99 sulfur colloid radiotracers. Two important parameters for successful nuclear probe-guided surgery are the probe's high-energy photon sensitivity and its spatial resolution.
These parameters can be modified for a given probe in a number of ways. Increasing or decreasing the energy acceptance window can affect whether more or fewer scattered photons are counted. Widening the energy window increases photon sensitivity but decreases spatial resolution as more scattered high-energy photons are counted. Narrowing the energy window increases spatial resolution but decreases photon sensitivity as fewer scattered high-energy photons are counted.